Saturday, February 20, 2010

You cannot understand how fucking excited I am for this movie. I'm not ashamed to say that parts 1 and 2 are two of my favourite movies ever. Nostalgia does play a little bit of a role in that, as they were huge Disney films when I was younger, but what it comes down to is that they are just great movies. It doesn't matter how old you are, you can watch them and laugh. Excellently written and casted. Can't wait to see what happens in this one.

Something I get all the time when talking to people about things I like (music, movies, TV shows) is "Oh, I used to love (insert band, movie, cartoon)". Generally their reaction seems to be kind of negative to me. They seem to have the idea that just because I listen to a punk band that they listened to when they were going through their "punk phase" I somehow haven't grown up or matured. They also immediately assume I have shitty taste in music just because I thought No Use For A Name was good in grade 8 and still think they rule today. I suppose it's kind of easy to make this assumption because I can come off as immature.

But just because I still like to read X-Men and watch the Fairly Odd Parents doesn't mean I haven't matured as a person. I mean yeah, poop is still the over-riding topic when my brother comes over for dinner and I have a subscription on hold at the Dragon comic shop. But when I compare how I handle situations to some other people, I find that I'm the more "mature" one.

So fuck off. Just because I still listen to NoFX doesn't mean you're better than me.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

So this past week I spent three days in New York City. My parents booked me the trip as my Christmas present. They figured since I’m doing the whole “art school” thing, I should to the closest big art community. Also, I’ve never traveled before, let alone flown somewhere. Big shit, no?

So I flew out Monday morning. I’m not going to lie, I was really nervous waiting in the terminal for my flight. The fact that I flew through customs and had to wait another two hours for my flight didn’t help either. I was fine as soon as we took off though. I landed and was alone in New York for about six hours. I realized that I HATE traveling along and am probably not going to do it again.

But, I eventually met up with some people. We split up as everyone had different plans. Cara, Alex and Tom went to go see a Broadway, while Nickey, Nick and I went to Soho and to try and find CBGB and OMFUG. I got a rad tank top and found out that the world’s most famous punk venue has been turned into a record store. Kind of bummed me out. Then I met Paul, Dwyer, Winkler and Pat at their hostel. We had a few drinks and mingled with some other travelers. We went to this place Dallas BBQ for dinner. They specialize in barbecuing food (duh) and we ate some much chicken and so many ribs. Wicked cornbread too. Subway ride home and walked past some sketchy crack heads in Times Square on the way to my hotel.

First thing next morning we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their collection was ridiculous. First thing we saw was the Greek and Roman sculpture exhibit. Some of the pieces were really old and all of them were incredible looking. I didn’t even know they would have stuff like that and it blew me away. The one I liked most from that part was a huge sculpture of Hercules wearing a lion’s skin around his body, it looked fucking gnarly. After that I went to check out the European collection. At the AGO I’m used to seeing one or two works by each major artist. At the Met they had rooms assigned to each one. Their collection was overwhelming. My favourite part was seeing Jaques-Louis David’s “The Death of Socrates”. He is one of my favourite artists and that painting looks absolutely astounding. Following that I headed to the 19th/20th century European exhibit. This is really my favourite type of art. Getting to see Manet’s first painting accepted into the Salon was really a big deal for me. They also had a great modern collection as well. I had no idea the museum was going to be as extensive as it was. It blew me away.

We got some rad NYC pizza after that. Mine had baked pasta on top of it. We went back to down to Soho to check some more stuff out. Then we got in a cab to check out the Brooklyn Banks. It’s probably the most famous skate spot in the world and it’s getting torn down this year but luckily I had a chance to see it before it got wrecked. I got a brick for my brother and I and it really turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the trip. That night we drank in my hotel and watched the Canada-Slovakia hockey game.

I got up early in the morning to make it to the MoMA before I had to catch my shuttle to the airport. I did get to see most of it, but missed out on catching the bulk of the Tim Burton exhibit which sucked because I love him so much. But I got to see some of his stuff along with pretty everything else the place had to offer. I found that I forgot about a lot of the stuff that they have in there. I’d turn a corner and think “Oh, that’s starry night” or “I forgot that Full Fathom 5 was here”. Tons of cool stuff.

After that I waited way too long in the airport for my flight and came home. Upside was a jumbo pretzel-dog and a sprite.

Some stuff about New York:

Fucking Hawaiian Punch. I used to drink it all the time when I was younger but they don’t sell it in Canada anymore. I had it so much this trip.

Fucking Hot Nuts. So many stands selling hot honey roasted nuts in New York. SO DELICIOUS. Toronto needs to get on this now.

So much good food all around. Street meat needs some work though.

Your subway is fucking confusing.

Your bagels rule way too hard. Seriously. Doesn’t everyone go to New York, come home and think “Man, our bagels suck”? We can learn how to make them like that. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY.

Make a law against promoting stand-up comedy in Times Square. Please.

Start shipping bagels and strawberry Sunny Delight to me in Toronto.

I love your cabs. They are cheap and come all the time.

Toronto doesn’t even know what jay-walking is. Pedestrians and drivers are just way too reckless in New York.

I DUNNO, I’M FORGETTING STUFF. I’LL ADD IT LATER.

Also; title is an Andrew W.K. reference. Not the shirt. Even though I did buy one. It was $2.99.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I know I've spoken extensively about Bomb The Music Industry!, The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Jeff Rosenstock on here. I'm not about to stop that. Randomly, BTMI! put out a new EP this week. Not surprisingly, it rules way too hard. I really relate to all of Jeff's lyrics a lot. They just keep putting out music (for free! always free!) and keep kicking my ass with it.

Another album that I really like is "Maps" by Mixtapes. It has the drummer from Fireworks in it, who are always fun. I read that they had put their album up for free, but hadn't heard of the band. They said their main influences were Superchunk and Dillinger Four, who I both absolutely love, but seemed like a pretty odd mix. I checked them out and really really liked what I heard. To me they sound like Pavement, except sometimes they play fast. Awesome 90's indie influences mixed with slammin' pop-punk influences.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Bands add me to myspace all the fucking time. I actually don't mind it at all because I've really found a bunch of bands that I really love this way. One thing I've noticed is that Florida has an absolutely killer pop-punk scene going on right now. There must be something in the water, Jesus. A nice thing is that they all have pretty distinct sounds too; You Vandal has a definite early 2000's thing going, Safety loves Fat Wreck Chords, while Go Rydell likes to err on the side of Kid Dynamite. I hope all these bands keep at it, because they really do just kick loads of ass.

Life's pretty sweet right now. It seems it's one of those odd times when I seem to have my shit in order. I'm thinking clearly and I have some goals. Think positive, life's a whole lot easier and a whole lot more fun that way.

get my average in school back up to where it used to be

keep what I have going on right now, going for a while longer

GROW MY HAIR SO I CAN BE GREAZY IN THE SUMMER

and maybe write some jams

Lastly, Bad Religion fucking rules! I've liked them for a long time, but seem to forget about them so much. "Suffer" is easily a top 5 most influential punk album of all time and personally I think Greg Graffin's voice is one of the best in punk ever. Smart lyrics (he has a phd and teaches philosophy at UCLA for Christsake) and fast melodic music didn't exist before this band came around and became par for the course after they did. This is a really new song, but I think it still really showcases what the band can do. Everybody loves them for a reason.